News & Commentary

We all want to live in safe communities. But recycling the same failed policies from years past this legislative session is not the solution. Here’s our vision for achieving public safety in New Mexico.

Lisa Jaramillo was excited to take up a job in maintenance at the Western New Mexico Correctional Facility in January of 2017. Whatever joy her job provided her quickly vanished.

The New Mexico prison population stands near 7,500 inmates. Nearly all these individuals will be released and will face many challenges as they rejoin their communities, one of which will be finding a job. Unfortunately, this task is made much more difficult by nonsensical state laws.

Our client, Selene Alverio was denied an American Sign Language (ASL) interpreter by the Bernalillo County Metropolitican Court and Judge Daniel Ramczyk during a November 2018 civil dispute hearing. Although Ms. Alverio requested an interpreter approximately two weeks before the hearing, which was well before the court’s deadline of forty-eight hours advance notice, as well as several times during her hearing, all of her requests were denied.

Incarcerated and denied medical care.

One of the axiomatic truths of the legislative session is that it’s really hard to pass a good law. Believe us, we know. The ACLU of New Mexico has worked tirelessly year after year to advance legislation that makes our state a more just, free, and safe place to live and raise families, but year after year we see most of our priority bills fall victim to a torturous legislative process filled with a myriad of pitfalls, minefields, and political quagmire.

Like many New Mexicans, I live with felony convictions dating back decades. Slightly more than 20 years ago, an Albuquerque police officer arrested me for taking an end table off of my neighbor’s sun porch and charged me with residential burglary — a third degree felony. I pleaded guilty and the judge sentenced me to 18 months in prison followed by five years of probation and two years of parole.

This bill gets at some of the most important tools for fighting recidivism: access to good jobs, safe housing, and educational opportunities.

Kelly Garcia left Northwest New Mexico Correctional Center nearly six years ago, but sometimes, in her dreams, she finds herself back in a familiar cell. She’s trapped by the same four concrete walls and that same long lonely silence which was pierced only by the occasional cries of inmates worn down by solitude.